The invention relates to a method for copying or blocking regions of a printed sheet. The invention also relates to a method of printing text and/or graphics. The invention further relates to an apparatus and a computer program product for implementating any one of the methods. The invention also relates to a sheet for use in the methods.
Photocopiers and optical scanners are well known. A user of such apparatus may desire to copy/scan only certain portions of a document, while not copying/scanning the remaining portions. In practice, the user blanks out those portions he does not want copied/scanned by overlaying the portions with a blank sheet of paper. Thus when the user photocopies or scans the document only those portions that are not overlayed are effectively photocopied/scanned. The remaining overlayed portions are photocopied/scanned as blanked portions. This is a cumbersome and time-consuming process.
It is an object of the invention to ameliorate one or more disadvantages of the prior art.
According to one aspect of the invention, there is disclosed a method of copying regions of a printed sheet, the printed sheet comprising a plurality of said regions having recorded therein associated text and/or graphics and information stored on said printed sheet indicating the location of the regions, the method comprising the steps of: (i) reading said information stored on said printed sheet indicating the location of the regions; (ii) selecting one or more of said regions and associated text and/or graphics for copying; and (iii) copying said selected regions and associated text and/or graphics in accordance with said information.
According to another aspect of the invention, there is disclosed a method of blocking regions of a printed sheet, the printed sheet comprising a plurality of said regions having recorded therein associated text and/or graphics and information stored on said printed sheet indicating the location of the regions, the method comprising the steps of: (i) reading said information stored on said printed sheet indicating the location of the regions; (ii) selecting one or more of said regions and associated text and/or graphics for blocking; and (iii) blocking said selected regions and associated text and/or graphics in accordance with said information.
According to still another aspect of the invention, there is apparatus for copying regions of a printed sheet, the printed sheet comprising a plurality of said regions having recorded therein associated text and/or graphics and information stored on said printed sheet indicating the location of the regions, the apparatus comprising: means for reading said information stored on said printed sheet indicating the location of the regions; means for selecting one or more of said regions and associated text and/or graphics for copying; and means for copying said selected regions and associated text and/or graphics in accordance with said information.
According to still another aspect of the invention, there is apparatus for blocking regions of a printed sheet, the printed sheet comprising a plurality of said regions having recorded therein associated text and/or graphics and information stored on said printed sheet indicating the location of the regions, the apparatus comprising: means for reading said information stored on said printed sheet indicating the location of the regions; means for selecting one or more of said regions and associated text and/or graphics for blocking; and means for blocking said selected regions and associated text and/or graphics in accordance with said information.
According to still another aspect of the invention, there is disclosed a computer program product comprising a computer readable medium having recorded thereon a computer program for copying regions of a printed sheet, the printed sheet comprising a plurality of said regions having recorded therein associated text and/or graphics and information stored on said printed sheet indicating the location of the regions, the apparatus comprising: means for reading said information stored on said printed sheet indicating the location of the regions; means for selecting one or more of said regions and associated text and/or graphics for copying; and means for copying said selected regions and associated text and/or graphics in accordance with said information.
According to still another aspect of the invention, there is disclosed a computer program product comprising a computer readable medium having recorded thereon a computer program for blocking regions of a printed sheet, the printed sheet comprising a plurality of said regions having recorded therein associated text and/or graphics and information stored on said printed sheet indicating the location of the regions, the apparatus comprising: means for reading said information stored on said printed sheet indicating the location of the regions; means for selecting one or more of said regions and associated text and/or graphics for blocking; and means for blocking said selected regions and associated text and/or graphics in accordance with said information.
According to still another aspect of the invention, there is disclosed a method of printing text and/or graphics, the method comprising the steps of: displaying an image of a document having a plurality of regions; selecting one or more of said regions of the displayed document; inputting text and/or graphics for display in the selected regions of the document; and printing said displayed document together with information indicating the location of the regions.
According to still another aspect of the invention, there is apparatus for printing text and/or graphics, the apparatus comprising: means for displaying an image of a document having a plurality of regions; means for selecting one or more of said regions of the displayed document; means for inputting text and/or graphics for display in the selected regions of the document; and means for printing said displayed document together with information indicating the location of the regions.
According to still another aspect of the invention, there is disclosed a computer program product comprising a computer readable medium having recorded thereon a computer program for printing text and/or graphics, the computer program product comprising: means for displaying an image of a document having a plurality of regions; means for selecting one or more of said regions of the displayed document; means for inputting text and/or graphics for display in the selected regions of the document; and means for printing said displayed document together with information indicating the location of the regions.
According to still another aspect of the invention, there is disclosed a method of printing text and/or graphics on a sheet, the sheet comprising a plurality of regions adapted to record therein associated text and/or graphics and information thereon indicating the location of the regions, the method comprising the steps of: selecting one or more of said regions for inputting text and/or graphics; inputting the text and/or graphics; and printing the text and/or graphics in the user selected regions.
According to still another aspect of the invention, there is apparatus for printing text and/or graphics on a sheet, the sheet comprising a plurality of regions adapted to record therein associated text and/or graphics and information thereon indicating the location of the regions, the apparatus comprising: means for selecting one or more of said regions for inputting text and/or graphics; means for inputting the text and/or graphics; and means for printing the text and/or graphics in the user selected regions.
According to still another aspect of the invention, there is provided a computer program product comprising a computer readable medium having recorded thereon a computer program for printing text and/or graphics on a sheet, the sheet comprising a plurality of regions adapted to record therein associated text and/or graphics and information thereon indicating the location of the regions, the computer program product comprising: means for selecting one or more of said regions for inputting text and/or graphics; means for inputting the text and/or graphics; and means for printing the text and/or graphics in the user selected regions.
According to still another aspect of the invention, there is provided a printed sheet having text and/or graphics recorded thereon, the printed sheet comprising: a plurality of regions having recorded therein associated text and/or graphics; and information stored on said printed sheet indicating the location of the regions.
According to still another aspect of the invention, there is a method of copying a printed sheet, said printed sheet comprising a plurality of regions each identified by indicia incorporated upon said sheet, at least one of said regions including information recorded therein, said method comprising the steps of: (i) reading said indicia from said printed sheet to identify said regions; (ii) selecting at least one of said regions for copying, said selection thereby establishing a set of said regions of said printed sheet not desired for copying; and (iii) copying said printed sheet by copying information recorded on said print sheet except information contained in said set of regions.